


Secrets

by Elisexyz



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, F/M, Hydra Grant Ward, Hydra Jemma Simmons, Missing in Action, Season/Series 01, married au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-12-07 00:00:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18227186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz
Summary: “Donotplay the overly concerned father with me, Garrett,” she adds then, with as much venom as she can muster, and deliberately omitting the ‘Agent’. He deserves no form of respect from her. “He was on that plane in the first place because ofyou, youknewfrom the beginning that Coulson was trouble andyousent him there anyway. As far as I’m concerned, this is all your fault, and you’d betterhopethat they find him.”





	Secrets

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fill for the "Missing and Presumed Dead" prompt [on my Bad Things Happen Bingo card on Tumblr](http://heytheredeann.tumblr.com/post/183704573094/missing-and-presumed-dead-fill-for-the-bad).  
>  ...and it came out _nothing_ like what I had originally planned, but alright LOL.

Jemma may be an awful liar, but she excels at diplomacy.

That skill is probably the only thing that allows her not to blow up in Garrett’s face until they are alone – and even then she refrains from planting her scalpel in his neck; she should applaud her own self-control, really.

“Do you need to take the rest of the day off?” Garrett asks, in that fatherly and concerned tone that works _wonders_ on Grant, it makes him melt on the spot every damn time, but in her case only makes her grow more pissed.

“I’m fine right here,” Jemma replies, sharply.

At her glare, Garrett clenches his jaw, definitely sensing that the hostility is targeted towards _him_ specifically, rather than towards the general situation, but he isn’t smart enough to decide to leave her alone. Or maybe he’s simply too arrogant to realize that he can’t charm her with his empty words.

“Look, sweetheart, there’s no need to worry, Coulson is Fury’s star pupil, they won’t stop searching until—” he tries once again, and it’s the mention of _Coulson_ of all things that does the trick.

“ _Stop_ ,” she hisses, hitting the table in frustration – that habit she picked up from Grant, she’s pretty sure, she never used to _hit_ things – and finally turning her full body towards him. He’s bigger than her and she doesn’t really stand a chance in a frontal fight, but she’s fully ready claw one of his eyes out on her way down to hell if he doesn’t _shut up_.

“Do _not_ play the overly concerned father with me, Garrett,” she adds then, with as much venom as she can muster, and deliberately omitting the ‘Agent’. He deserves no form of respect from her. “He was on that plane in the first place because of _you_ , you _knew_ from the beginning that Coulson was trouble and _you_ sent him there anyway. As far as I’m concerned, this is all your fault, and you’d better _hope_ that they find him.”

Jemma never liked this knew assignment: from the first moment she was explained that Grant would be expected to live on a plane with _Phil Coulson_ , who has an unnerving tendency to get into trouble and to completely ignore protocol, risking to get his agents killed at every turn, she hasn’t stopped expecting for bad news to arrive any day.

Even _she_ hadn’t predicted that their plane would just straight up disappear, though.

It’s been a little over a week, and given that there’s no sign of them whatsoever they’ve officially declared them ‘MIA, presumed dead’, which in her experience is merely a way for SHIELD to feel free to stop putting that much effort into the search. After all, what use is there in recovering people that are most likely dead, right?

And it’s all Garrett’s fault, because he always has to drag Grant into his shit, because he has been holding a debt over his head for a decade and a half and it doesn’t look like he has any intention of stopping.

(Some days, she gets the urge to slap Grant for letting him take advantage of him still. Most of the time, she just wants to set the bastard on fire and get it over with. The only thing stopping her is that Grant would for sure be heart-broken, but maybe they wouldn’t have gotten to this point if she just had done it anyway.)

“I understand that,” Garrett says, slowly. “I’m the one who recommended him to the team,” he adds then, and his tone warns her to be careful not to slip up.

They aren’t supposed to talk about Hydra – or Centipede, for that matter – when they aren’t completely sure that there is nobody listening, they shouldn’t even _allude_ to it, really, but today of all days Jemma doesn’t really give a crap about any of that.

“I feel responsible too,” Garrett continues – lies, lies, _lies_. “But Ward’s got thick skin, he’ll be back before you know it. No need to worry.”

Jemma clenches her jaw. Would he let her get away with slapping him straight in the face?

In that moment, a young technician enters the lab, barely glancing at them, and Jemma sighs, shaking her head slightly.

“I’d like to get back to work, Agent Garrett,” she declares, giving him a very eloquent look and hoping that her hatred is clearly dripping from her words. “If you please,” she adds then, gesturing for him to leave.

Garrett seems mildly amused for a moment, then he nods and leaves, thankfully without testing her patience by breathing another word.

Jemma swallows, she takes a deep, steadying breath and she tries to clear her head of anything that isn’t work.

 

 

The next time she sees Garrett, he barges into her lab without knocking.

She only spares a few moments to be annoyed before she notices the triumphant expression on his face and hopefulness twists her stomach.

“They’re back,” he announces. “Whole team’s at The Hub, want a ride?”

She barely remembers to take her gloves off before she’s out of the door.

 

 

As soon as she sees him, Jemma barely registers that he’s in the company of his whole team: she barely notices much of anything, really, she only calls out his name when she’s already running in his direction.

She quite literally throws herself at him, and in response he wraps her arms around her and takes half a step back to steady them both, holding her at least as tight as she’s holding him.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” she chokes out, grinning from ear to ear and burying her face in his shoulder a moment later, taking a deep breath to calm herself down before she starts sobbing uncontrollably and makes him worry too much.

(Although, in all fairness, he deserves to worry a little, after the scare _she_ took.)

“I’m okay,” he confirms, squeezing her tighter for a second. “Everything’s okay.”

When they pull away, if only slightly, Jemma expects a kiss, and for a moment it looks like that’s exactly what he wants to give to her, she can see the hunger for it in his expression, then something changes on his face, and he glances behind him, to his team quite literally gaping at them, and in a matter of seconds his whole demeanour changes: he stands a little straighter, taking half a step away from her and releasing the pressure on her arms, and he looks embarrassed by the PDA.

(Jemma has seen him slipping into a cover before, but that doesn’t make it any less unsettling.)

Considering that protecting his cover’s reputation as a hardass is the least of her concerns right now, and that _she_ doesn’t have any recital to worry about anyway, she smiles slightly at him before pulling him down and into a deep kiss, without letting him pull away as soon as she notices that he’s barely putting any effort into it.

(His cover doesn’t have anything to explain away if she does all the work, does he?)

When they eventually pull apart, she slips back into his arms, taking a deep breath and letting him stroke her back gently, closing her eyes for a moment.

She has a lot of questions – not to mention a buttload of insults that she’d like to address to Coulson for what was in all likelihood a result of his negligence –, but she only plans on asking them when they will be alone: she wants the uncensored commentary, totally uncharacteristic for Grant’s very serious and professional cover.

That guy is boring anyway, she doesn’t want much to do with him.

“You alright, son?” she hears Garrett ask, and now that Grant is back with her the urge to kill him on the spot isn’t even that strong – that is probably bound to change soon, though.

“All good, sir,” Grant asks, straightening his back slightly in spite of how she’s still wrapped around him.

Garrett heads towards Coulson after giving a squeeze to Grant’s shoulder, and Jemma still doesn’t let go.

She feels like she kinda has to when they are approached by what she recognizes as Skye, the wild card that Coulson welcomed on the team on a whim and that Grant has been training: she has been gaping at them the whole time, and now she’s hovering closer and closer, her shock mixed with enthusiasm.

“You must be Skye,” Jemma says, trying to sound friendly. She allows Grant a little bit of personal space, but she doesn’t let go of his shirt.

“Yeah,” she replies, quickly. “And you must be— Ward’s girlfriend—?” she adds then, her tone edging a lot towards hopefulness as she glances at Grant – who’s probably rolling his eyes right now.

Jemma can’t help smiling a little, because judging by what she knows of this girl she’s about to have a field day.

“Wife, actually,” she reveals, casually.

Skye opens and closes her mouth intermittently an hundred of times, looking between the two of them, before she can get out: “Wi—wife? _Wife_?!” Then, she turns to Grant. “You’re _married_? Ward! How come you didn’t tell me?!”

Grant raises his eyebrows, unamused. “What part of this sounds like it’s any of your business, exactly?”

“I— well, I’m your protégé!”

“Maybe you would be if you applied to your training. Right now you’re just a pain in my ass.”

“Oh, _I_ am a pain—” She shakes her head as if to clear it. “Nevermind, that’s not the point. Point is, you can’t just _not_ tell people you are married! You being all broody and secretive is why we all think you are secretly a robot, you know?”

Grant rolls his eyes once again. “I need to take a walk,” he announces then. “I need to stretch my legs. And take a break from all the _chatter_.”

Jemma knows that she’s meant to follow, and Skye lets them go with only a bad joke on not disappearing for too long and a promise that she’s going to grill her for embarrassing anecdotes on her husband later.

They walk side by side, their hands brushing and not saying much with all the prying eyes around them, until they find a suitable storage room they can slip into without being noticed – like two teenagers, but Jemma has no shame to spare at the moment.

Grant doesn’t waste any time before literally pulling her up, gently manoeuvring her so that her back is against the wall and they are pretty much at the same eye-level, she being a little higher than him, for a change.

“I missed you,” he announces, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

She smiles right back, leaning forward so their foreheads touch. “Me too,” she breathes out. “We will still talk about what happened and how much you made me worry, though,” she highlights then, just in case he thinks this gets him off the hook.

“Not my fault this time, believe it or not,” he declares, before pulling her into a kiss. It’s a bit of a rushed mess, which is unsurprising considering how much he hates playing Good Guy Agent Ward when she’s around and how he has had to hold back up until now, but Jemma doesn’t really mind.

“Every day you don’t quit makes it your fault,” she reminds him.

“All of it?” he asks, teasingly.

“ _All_ of it,” she confirms, planting an accusatory finger into his shoulder.

“Guess I have a lot of making-up to do, then,” he grins.

She’s looking forward to it.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including: 
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> If you don’t want a reply, for any reason, feel free to sign your comment with “whisper” and I will appreciate it but not respond!


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